Little C had her dance recital last Saturday and it was SO CUTE! It was Frozen themed (big surprise), and her dance teacher asked all of her students to wear something blue. With some leftovers from this DIY Elsa costume still kicking around and a limited budget, I thought it would be fun to make a really simple Frozen inspired dance costume for Little C and we were both very happy with how it turned out!

This DIY dance costume is a stretchy velvet bodysuit and a tutu skirt in turquoise, aqua and embellished with rhinestones. It took me a day to make, and it cost me about $15 in supplies (I had the stretch velvet in my stash already).

There is minimal sewing in this project, but it really helps if you have a serger to make the bodysuit. Here’s the serger I have – best sewing investment ever!

First, use a stretchy bodysuit you have on hand to trace a pattern for the new bodysuit. I carefully pinned mine on to some brown kraft paper and traced around the edges. After that, I folded each piece down the middle and adjusted as necessary to make sure my front and back pieces were symmetrical.

Cut out your pattern pieces and pin them on to the stretch velvet. Cut a front and back from the velvet, making sure to add a 1/2″ onto your patterns for the seam allowance.

Pin the front and back bodysuit pieces right sides together, and stitch them along the side seams, the shoulder seams and the crotch seam with a serger. Finish the open edges of the neck, arms and legs with a serged stitch. You could also then turn the openings in 1/4″ and stitch again to form a casing for some thin elastic, but I didn’t find this last step necessary. I thought the serged openings looked and functioned fine and were suitable for a costume.

To make the tutu skirt, measure your child’s waist and cut the 1/2″ elastic about 1″ smaller. Sew it together at the ends to form a circle. Measure from your child’s waist to where you want the tutu to end (ours is calf length), and cut pieces of tulle that are about twice that length.

Embellish the tutu with rhinestones. I glued mine with a glue gun to each knot at the waistband, and then periodically around the top of the skirt.

You can also embellish the top front of the bodysuit with rhinestones.

Little C was thrilled with her sparkly dance costume, and it looked great at her recital. This would also make a cute birthday party outfit or Halloween costume!

I got a little weepy thinking how full circle this post was – here’s Little C as a 9 month old baby modelling one of my first tutorials on here (the no-sew baby tutu) and here she is as an almost 6 year old (!!) modelling the same kind of tutu! My, how they grow.

Hi, I’ve just found your blog searching some inspiration for my daughter’s Elsa costume (I don’t want to buy a ready made, they are all so weird). You make wonderful things and moreover they are simple to make which every mum constantly out of time appreciate:)
Thanks for sharing, it’s really beautiful and useful!
Best wishes from Switzerland:)

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